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<!-- $Id:layers.sgml 1 2006-08-29 05:11:55 xerakko $ --> 
<sect1 id="steplayers">
<title>Layers</title> 
<para> In the previous tutorial, you made a
first simple animation by changing the attributes of primitive objects
such as its position, color, and size. These simple types, however, are
seldomly sufficient to create advanced characters and objects. To do so,
Synfig uses Layers. They are similar to layers known from other drawing
application such as the GIMP, for instance.</para>

<para>However, Synfig is different to simple layers in at least two 
respects:</para>
<orderedlist>
  <listitem>
   <para>You can organize layers into hierachical groups.</para>
  </listitem>
  <listitem>
   <para>You can use upper layers to change the behaviour (or look)
      or underlying layers.</para>
  </listitem>
</orderedlist>

<para>Doing so is quite easy. Let's look at a simple example.</para>

<orderedlist>
  <listitem>
   <para>Create a new file with 0 duration. There's no need to bother
	 with a timeline at this point.</para>   
  </listitem>
  <listitem>
   <para>Create a simple rectangle.</para>
  </listitem>
</orderedlist>
&using.sgml; 
&combining.sgml; 
</sect1>
